August 25, 2015

That day when Justin Wilson was faster than Schumacher.

At six foot four, Justin Wilson was not supposed to fit in a Formula One car.

In 2003, Paul Stoddard's Minardi built a car to fit him but when he changed teams towards the end of that season he had to fit in a Jaguar originally built around Antonio Pizzonia's, a much shorter man.

How the team squeezed him in there and how he managed to race at all is a testament to his tenacity.

In 2003 F1 had a weird qualifying system with single lap sessions on Friday and Saturday.
Friday session was essentially meaningless for the race because it was run on low fuel but it was the fastest of the two, an all out single lap.

That day, in that session, on his debut for the team, Wilson outpaced Schumi.